


Fight

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Drama, F/M, Falling In Love, Fights, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Office Sex, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:42:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25959235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Ethan and MC are fighting and everyone at Edenbrook knows it.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	Fight

The storm that had been raging above Boston all weekend dried up over the city to land squarely on Edenbrook. The Director of the Diagnostic Team and his Junior Fellow were fighting. And everyone knew it.

It started on Monday when the Diagnostics team had their morning meeting. A nurse overheard Dr Hirata on the phone telling someone that there was ‘trouble in paradise’ and that ‘she didn’t even look at him. Usually she spends the whole meeting trying not to stare.’

Later that same nurse heard Baz telling Ines that Ramsey was in a mood so fierce that it made Zaid look like a puppy. Apparently at their morning meeting, he’d just grunted through all of brainstorming sessions and then snapped at Eve when she’d made a joke about trying to solicit the President’s support for the hospital.

By lunchtime, the rumour was taking hold. Mitch was in the locker room with Gary and Sothy.

“Can you believe he had the nerve to shout at me? I basically saved that patient’s life, I mean I was ready to save his life, and then he waltzes in and does it before me. Jerk.”

“One of the nurses told me to stay away from him today,” said Gary, “apparently he’s in a really bad mood.”

“The guy is a full time asshole. So he wrote one boring book, he thinks he’s some sort of God. Probably isn’t getting any either.” Mitch said, slamming his locker door shut.

“He was actually pretty good last week when I needed help? I had no idea what I was doing and…”

“Shut up Sothy.” Mitch yawned. “He’s a jerk.”

At afternoon rounds it was becoming obvious to everyone that Dr Valentine was the source of the current discontent.

After the interns finished their rounds with her, they found her gesticulating wildly by the empty nurse’s station in a furious hushed argument with Ramsey.

“What’s up with them?” Esme asked Mitch.

“Shut up Ortega, we’re trying to listen in.” he answered.

Esme watched Eve shake her head and gesture with her hands pointing between her and the much taller attending. She looked different, a world away from her usual peppy professional self, her eyes were glittering with a passion Esme hadn’t seen before and she almost looked as though she was pleading.

“She definitely just said something about an interview.” said Sothy, “Like ‘It wasn’t an interview’ or something like that.”

“What, can you lip read or something now?” Mitch sneered.

“I can actually, yes.”

Eve stared up at Ramsey and for a second Esme thought she looked as though she was reaching for his hand but he moved out of the way, crossing his arms quickly.

“Hey, what’s she saying now?”

“He said ‘you should’ve told me earlier’ and she said, I think, ‘only did it to try to save this hospital’ something something ‘you should trust me by now’ and now she’s saying ‘I’m…not…like your…mother’ but that can’t be right? Why would she say that. Damn, I need to brush up on this.”

Esme stopped listening and watched as Dr Ramsey walked off without another word, livid. Eve stood dejected, her arms tucked around her body, cradling herself. She watched after him until he was out of sight and then quietly turned away in the opposite direction.

#

That evening, after a long 12 hour shift Aurora wanted nothing more than to kick off her shoes. After an exhausting day diagnosing arterial thoracic outlet syndrome in a patient with none of the symptoms, she was ready to talk about anything but medicine. Clueless about the chaos that awaited her, she joined her housemates in the kitchen.

“So what’s going on at Edenbrook, guys?” Aurora sat down at the wooden table, and bit into an apple with a loud snap. Sienna was stirring cookie dough and gave her a wide smile as Elijah kept rifling through a magazine.

The door opened and Eve came in. Aurora blinked twice to check it was her. She looked nothing like her usual put together self, her dark hair was bundled high in a messy pony, her face looked puffy and she was gesturing with her hands desperately as balanced her phone on her shoulder.

“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?” she said into her cellphone as she gave her roomies a little wave and tight smile as she walked towards her room.

“Alright, what’s going on with her?” Aurora gave a pointed look.

“What? Nothing, she’s fine, isn’t she Elijah?” Sienna carried on stirring the bowl.

“Yeah if you call mad as hell fine. I do not wanna be Ra…ight on the other end of that phone.” Elijah chuckled.

“I know what that’s like. Remember?” Aurora rolled her eyes thinking back to the days they didn’t speak after the softball match.

“What, no! She’s a total softie.” Sienna protested.

“Yeah unless she’s mad, right ‘Ro? She scared the shit out of Sothy that time she caught him with the wrong meds.”

Just then they heard Eve raise her voice, “Eurgh, that’s not what happened!”

Aurora raised an eyebrow at Sienna. “I’m with Elijah, she’s terrifying. So who’s she seeing?”

“She’s not seeing anyone.” Sienna put the wooden spoon down.

“Oh c’mon. I’m not stupid.” Aurora smirked, “She’s barely here. Last week I saw her get dropped off in some fancy sedan and whoever was driving dragged her back into the car and she was giggling like a kid. She looks happy _all the time_. Well apart from right now, but even that proves the point. I know she’s seeing someone.”

Eve came out still talking on the phone, walked to the fridge and took out a bottle of water.

“And this is your definition of ‘we’ll talk about it later? You’re being a total…” she went back into her room.

“JERK”

The three froze at the table as they heard her shout and the sound of a phone hitting the door reverberated through the apartment.

“I better go check on her.” Sienna ran into Eve’s room.

“He’s totally going to break up with me” they heard Eve sigh out exasperated, before Sienna closed the door.

Aurora nudged Elijah with a smile.

“C’mon, tell me who it is.”

Elijah grinned and went back to his magazine. “Don’t ask me ‘Ro, I don’t know a thing.”

#

Tuesday morning was glorious in Boston. The sun beat down over the city, and waking earlier than usual to golden rays draped over his bedroom, Rafael headed down to the secret Edenbrook gym.

He walked in with a cheery smile, nodding at the security guards and grinned at one of the pretty nurses who blushed when she saw him. It was going to be a sweet day.

The gym was empty except for one attending, sprinting ferociously on a treadmill, far faster than he normally ran. He was going hard, trying to outrun whatever was playing on his mind. The disappointed look on his face as he slowed down made it clear that he had failed completely.

Raf bounded onto his own treadmill and ran, music pumping though his headphones, sweat pooling across his chest and barely noticed the exhausted doctor leave the room.

When Raf approached the changing rooms later he heard the familiar low voice sounding uncharacteristically desperate.

“I know that’s why you did it but it’s the principle of it.”

He stopped outside the door to give Dr Ramsey privacy.

“With our _situation_ , we have enough secrets. Keeping your own is dangerous. You should know that.”

Raf’s own cellphone started ringing and startled by the noise he heard Ramsey finish the call abruptly with an _I have to go_ before he stalked out the room without a word leaving Raf to wonder what the hell was going on.

#

By lunchtime, Dr Jackie Varma, expert at batting away drama, was sitting firmly in the eye of the storm.

“Man, what is going on with Ramsey?” Jackie slumped into her seat in the Edenbrook cafeteria with a can of soda, rolling her eyes at the attending sitting by himself in the corner.

“I can live with that whole asshole thing he has going on, but he is taking it too far today. He chewed me out because he couldn’t read my writing on some notes. We’re doctors for chrissake!”

“Screw Ramsey. I mean, I would.” Kyra twirled her fries in the ketchup as she glanced at him in the distance and grinned at the thought. “Seriously, bigger question, what’s up with Eve? I saw her earlier and she looked like she was gonna kill someone.”

“Whoa. Looking like that she probably will.” Bryce stared at the door.

He wasn’t the only one.

Eve walked in giggling with Sienna. White coat off, she wore a black leather pencil skirt with an obscenely large slit in the side that rode up to her tanned thighs and a tight white top. Her black stilettos clicked through the cafeteria as she took the long way round, silently sweeping past where her boss sat without looking at him and carrying on to join the coffee queue.

Kyra wolf-whistled as she went past, earning a wink from her. “Damn, whoever she’s mad at, she’s getting them baaaack.”

“Huh?”

“Jaw off the floor, scalpel jockey.” Jackie flicked a grape at him. “And back to my problems, children. Anyone got any intel on what’s pissed off Dr Terminator? I’m on a case with him and could do without his BS this afternoon.”

“Oh yeah, I heard Harper and Banerji talking about him earlier.” Bryce looked back at them.

“Spill. Now. Everything.”

He leant in close. “Apparently he was pretty mad at the Board meeting last night. Harper said he refused to agree to anything they proposed and ended up storming out.”

“Is that it? Hospital bureaucracy? That’s so…boring.”

“Nah, Banerji said he was like that all day. Something personal apparently.”

“I heard him last night when I was working late,” Kyra said casually, “Damn how did I forget this. Must’ve been his baby blues distracting me” she winked.

“He was on the phone with someone and he said ‘because you’re keeping things from me’ which sounded juicy as hell so I listened in. Then he said something about that Pictagram chick who was here…”

“Gwyneth Monroe?!”

“That’s it. He said ‘No, not like with Gwyneth Monore, this is more than that.’ And then, just as this got good…”

“Yeah?”

“He said ‘I’m not talking about this anymore’ and hung up.”

“Eurgh, you two are so bad at getting gossip. Guess I’m stuck with him and his pissy mood.”

Jackie stood up and took one last look at the tall attending sitting in the corner. He was staring in the direction of the coffee queue intensely, lost in his own world, his blue eyes dim with whatever was troubling him. 

#

Later that afternoon, Esme stood outside her peptic ulcer patient’s room waiting for Eve to come out. She needed a breather to process what had just happened. The patient was a PITA, he’d been doubting her judgement and questioning her age and qualifications all day. She’d heard that PITAs got assigned to interns to test their mettle and was doing fine until the asshole had made a dig about ‘lady doctors’. Luckily for her and _unluckily_ for him, Eve was in the room.

“Hey, thanks for the save. You were kinda scary in there.” Esme said quietly, when the resident emerged.

Eve looked up at her from her paperwork and smiled, “He needed to hear it.”

“I get that. He’s been a sexist pain in the ass all day. I just thought you’d tell me to be patient or something, not call him out on it.”

Eve sighed and brought the chart up across her chest. “You were doing your job and doing it well. If you’ve done nothing wrong then he needs to hear it. You deserve to be believed. We’re doing our best, all of us, we’re doing this _for_ him and he needs to understand that.”

Esme’s eyes slipped over her shoulder to where Dr Ramsey was standing. He was fixed on Eve and listening intently. Esme caught his eye, he looked away and went back to his notes.

“Are you sure you’re okay? It felt like there was more to it in there.” she looked over at the attending again and could tell he was still listening.

Eve softened and smiled at her. “I’ve had something…personal on my mind but I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me. Next time you get a PITA, talk to me.”

She stalked off, her heels clicking past Ramsey and Esme watched his eyes follow every step.

#

Known as the nicest nurse in Edenbrook, Danny had the effect of dissipating the toughest argument. Anytime the residents had unruly patients or relatives, they’d send the heart-shaped bat signal out for Danny and he’d weave his magic. Just his presence caused patients to calm down and tired interns to feel relaxed.

Even the most patient man had his limits.

By 10pm, he was done with the day. He wanted to go down to Donahue’s, wrap a certain beautiful doctor in his arms and drink all the vodka Reggie was willing to pour.

Heading up to the 5th floor to complete his last round of obs, he halted at the end of the normally silent corridor when he saw his girlfriend’s best friend knock and stand impatiently outside one of the attending’s offices.

She handed over some files through the door and then stood with her hands on her hips refusing to walk into the room. Danny had heard every imaginable rumour in the last two days about what was going on with the Diagnostics team doctors. After some hushed conversation, she shook her head and finally went in.

Danny finished his obs in a record 20 minutes, gathered his notes and was finally free for the night when he heard shouting coming from the office.

“You’re acting like a spoilt child, Ethan and I’m done apologising.”

“I’m not the one who started this.”

“If this is all it takes for you to give up, then maybe we should rethink this.”

The door opened and Eve took a firm step out before a hand emerged, wrapped an arm around her waist, spun her around and softly pulled her back in. The door slammed shut behind them.

Danny picked up his phone and text Sienna. Her replies pinged back in seconds:

**_LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!_ **

**_they need to talk, i’ll explain later_ **

**_also where are youuuuu?_ **

**_i’m drunk, come to Donahueeees_ **

**_Xoxo_ **

He smiled at his screen, took one last look down the now quiet corridor and headed downstairs.

#

She could handle high stakes poker, take on big pharma, risk her medical career and pull off major heists.

It took a lot to faze Eve Valentine.

But right now, she could barely remember her own name.

Opening her eyes she focused on the ceiling trying to adjust to the bright light, and for a split second, couldn’t recall where she was.

The tiniest smug smile played on the corners of her mouth as she regrouped her thoughts.

Slowly, she looked around the office and pulled herself off the desk, trying to prolong the moment. She was wearing absolutely nothing but her black high heels. 

“You know you could’ve just said sorry?” she smirked, still breathless as she slipped on her clothes.

“And miss out on this?”

He finished buttoning his shirt back up and turned her to face him, his hands gripping her tightly.

“For what’s it’s worth, I concede I may have jumped to conclusions.”

Eve hid her smile at his attempt at a sincere apology.

“Whoa, did Ethan Ramsey just admit he was wrong about something?”

“Don’t get used to it.” Eyes still flecked with desire, he kissed her collarbone softly and started moving up to her ear, “I missed you.”

“It’s only been a day.”

“Long day.”

She fluttered her eyes shut and leaned away giving him better access to her neck as he slipped his hand gently under her top.

“I missed you too. So much.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading this, it was a wild ride.


End file.
